M3 and the toolbox concept

I have talked about personalizations many, many times – and I am still convinced that there is a lot left to do in this area for most M3 users. Recently we have done some M3 installations for new customers, and in that kind of projects the need for a smooth navigation in M3 becomes very clear. It is not easy to run M3 the old-fashioned way.

What we have developed for these customers is what we call the toolbox concept. We want the users to have role based menus – but we also want the menus to be short, if possible not more than maybe 5-6 links. But how do you do this when a normal user in for example sales needs maybe 20-25 programs at least to do all tasks?

Using personalizations, we have created toolbox programs for all processes. The toolbox programs are the central programs in each process, and from these programs you can reach all related information needed to execute the process. In the example below you can see how the customer master has links to all related areas connected to customers/sales, both to basic data and transactions.

We have done the same thing for the customer order program, OIS302, and by having these two programs in the menu the sales user can execute almost all tasks during the day. Which program he/she should use is depending on if the user wants to start work from an order, or a customer perspective. Either way, the smart links will lead to all related places that are necessary for the ordinary day to day work.

To be able to reach all programs we want to reach, we have used bookmarks and mforms automations side by side with the ordinary related options in the toolbox area. Clear headings between each group of links makes it easy to find the correct link.

If you are interested of getting more information about this topic, please let us know! It takes quite some time to go through all programs – but it is worth it! And if you don´t want to start from scratch, we have a personalization package with 100+ programs where we have implemented this way of thinking for you.

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